In today's entry, we would like to highlight the issues of transitioning to a new technological level, Sector Conquest and continued work on improving the efficiency rewards system.

After the introduction of revisions to pilot progress rates, we closely monitored statistics and player feedback, then analysed all the data and prepared a package of measures to finalize the existing system, which we want to explain to you today.

So, here we go: for some time, our pilots noted that the current rate of credits accumulation is satisfactory, but still could be more comfortable for pilots with a premium license and those without one.

Based on this feedback and statistics, we found that this problem is indeed present. Therefore, we decided to increase the value of ‘trophies’ that pilots can find after the battle. Based on our forecasts, this measure would allow pilots to get more advanced equipment for ships of the next technological level faster.

In addition, another measure will also be introduced — despite the fact that all new ships are sold with pre-installed equipment, we want the players to have the opportunity to upgrade as soon as possible (since the transition from one tech level to another is associated with module replacement) so now, when fighting on ships of the final rank of a technological level (specifically, ranks 3, 6, 9, and 12), players will get upgrade kits (up to Mk. 2) for the next technological level.

Let us consider an example: while piloting a ship of the third technological level, rank 9, and winning a battle, pilots can get upgrade kits for the 4th tech level (and so on, for other ranks) — because of this, the transition to new ships should be more comfortable for all pilots.

Our pilots also noted that upgrading modules to Mk. 3 on the third and fourth tech level sometimes caused difficulties for inexperienced pilots, due to the complexity of accumulating enough loyalty vouchers. To resolve this situation, we refined the terms of all rank 7 and 8 contracts — while cooldowns on the former have been reduced to 1 hour, the latter now have no cooldown periods at all — i.e. immediately after completing a rank 8 contract you can pick one up again. We expect that this measure will allow pilots to quickly upgrade their equipment, which should also have a positive impact on the convenience of the transition to the next tech level.

In addition, to reduce the time spent on progressing through the senior ranks, we tweaked synergy rewards — from rank 9 onwards, pilots will get more synergy than with the current settings:

Rank 9 — 5% more

Ranks 10-12 — 20% more

Rank 13 — 10% more

Rank 14 — 5% more

This set of measures should have a positive impact on game dynamics, allowing pilots to join Sector Conquest battles faster.

Speaking of this mode, we should also note that its rules will see small tweaks — from now on, only ships of ranks 11 and higher will be able to queue for this mode. This change is due to the fact that inexperienced pilots were often at a disadvantage fighting against the most prevalent groups of pilots — corporate mercenaries with much better equipment. According to available statistics, the vast majority of players in this mode are pilots of rank 4 and 5 tech level ships with Mk. 3 or Mk.4 gear. For beginners, it is extremely difficult to fight against such opponents, causing them to misunderstand the mode's dynamics. As we noted earlier, this mode is endgame content, and this change is intended to more clearly reflect its essence.

The last part of today's blog will be a story about the continuing work on improving the mechanics of battle effectiveness: the first iteration of this system turned out to be of great interest to our pilots, and its follow-up in a previous update allowed pilots who are interested in supporting allies to receive a fair reward for the battle. However, we are still working hard to improve the mechanics — so in the next update our pilots should expect another important improvement: now the pilots who destroyed an enemy ship will receive a fixed amount of efficiency points for the kill, which will be summed with the effectiveness indicator for the damage done to destroy the enemy.
Pilots supporting allies with modules, and at the same time helping them deal damage, will receive rewards only for doing one of these things (should damage efficiency be higher pilots will recieve this, instead of supporting efficiency) — this eliminates the possibility of abuse of game mechanics. Thus, under the new settings destroying enemies will be more effective.